Friday after work I went to a bar with 2 other teachers and our director for some beer, soju and Korean bar food. This was an eye-opening experience. In America, bars typically give you popcorn for free, or maybe peanuts. And you order onion rings, nachos, or buffalo wings. All of these are, in my opinion, delicious.
In Korea, you get a tray of dried sardines and red pepper sauce (whose heads you pop off before eating...though I was told this isn't a necessity, I found I preferred it that way). You also are given a dried squid. That's right. A. Dried. Squid.
The only photo I took was on my phone, which I can't retrieve, so I found this picture online...It's the same thing I ate. Although I have noticed the color can range from a dusty pink to a purplish gray.
Now, there are 3 sections to the squid. The 'ears' as they call them, the body, and the tentacles. As you move down the creature, the pieces become chewier, with the ears being almost tender/chewy, the body like jerky, and the tentacles like rubber. Hard rubber. To eat it, you peel of pieces of it, kind of like string cheese, starting from the edge.
Sounds disgusting, no? That's what I thought at first too. But to my surprise, I found myself being unable to put it down. It is now my new favorite bar food.
Anyway, we also ordered a few dishes to share. First was essentially 3 large hot dogs and french fries. Good, but by far the most bland thing I have eaten since being here (although they did have ketchup! huzzah!). Then we got this pasta/vegetable spicy thing. It was basically cold angelhair pasta smothered in red pepper sauce. They considered it mild, I did NOT. We then ordered a plate of chicken tenders...of course, very hot. Way hotter than the pasta. On par with extra spicy buffalo sauce. Good, but HOT.
We also shared several bottles of beer. They were served in liter size or so bottles, and so we poured from there into our glasses. The beer glasses are really quite small. At least half the size of a typical pint glass you get in America.
They also were pleased to present me with my first shot of soju.
Soju is called a 'rice wine', but really it's just liquor. Liquor made from rice. It can also be made from potatoes, so you could say it's comparable to vodka. But, it's only about 20% alcohol by volume. As a result, it doesn't burn on the way down. It's clear and virtually tasteless. And, extraordinarily cheap. A bottle only costs about 2 dollars (2,000 won). It is the most popular drink in Korea, and believe me when I say people drink it a LOT.
Anyway, we all shared a bottle of soju in addition to our beer. They taught me that one popular way to drink it is to pour a shot or so into your beer. Since I don't like to take shots, no matter how flavorless the liquor may be, I readily adopted this form of consumption.
I think this may have contributed to my ravishing appetite for squid all night.
After a few hours my American friend Damien, who I know from college, came by to pick me up so we could go hang out with some of his foreigner friends elsewhere. My co-workers came out with me to say hello to him, since they met him months ago when he stopped by to help me find a job there.
So, then we got in the car and drove to...wherever it was we went. I'm still not sure about place names or where things are. Anyway it was some other part of the city. I had the leftover chicken and squid with me, which I munched on the remainder of the night. We had fun hanging out, playing nerdy larping games. We ended up staying til about 4am, which is an hour I haven't seen on the clock in a long time.
Saturday night we planned to go downtown to a few bars and a noraebong. As I was getting ready, taking my shower for the day, I discovered that my hot water heater seems to not be functioning. So, I heated up water on the stove so I could have a warm shower. I'm very resourceful. I also tried to call Damien a few times, only to discover that apparently I am unable to make outgoing calls or send messages. I believe this is due to the fact that the teacher who was here earlier and left without notice failed to pay his bill (I am using the phone he left behind). So, I need to talk to my boss and hopefully she can get this sorted out. I don't want to venture too far away from home without a way to call for help if I get lost!
Anyway, Damien picked me up and we went and said hi to his wife, who wasn't feeling well enough to join us unfortunately. So then we went downtown to a restaurant where you cook your meat yourself on a charcoal grill built in to your table. It was so delicious. First time I've had beef all week! Hooray! It came with, of course, red pepper sauce for dipping it. And a bowl of green onions (or some kind of onion) that you dipped in another kind of sauce...I don't know what it was. It was brown, and tasty. We also got a pile of sliced radish, kimchi, roasted garlic and jalepenos. It was very good. Only problem was that of course there was no fork. Only chopsticks. I learned how to use chopsticks once in high school but I have apparently forgotten how. They tried to teach me at school but I struggled, so another teacher brought me a fork from home. The director said she will try to remember to bring me a pair of trainers, like her 4 year old son uses. Awesome.
After dinner we were going to go to a German bar...complete with hoegaarden on tap! But it was full, so we went to a different one. Then we went to a 'western bar', called, for some reason, Hudson. It was a good time, we talked and played darts (we had a group of about 6). Then we went to the noraebong!
The noraebong is a wonderful place. This one was set up like this...you walk in to a reception area, which was decorated very nicely, with painted white woodwork and floral wallpaper, a lot like a New England Bed and Breakfast. you then pay for a room by the hour (this is not to indicate a hotel room. The B&B distinction ends after the reception desk). So, we took our shoes off and put them in a cupboard, and then were led to our room. That's right, a private karaoke room. And they serve you beer. And, to my delight, dried squid (no one else likes it for some reason so I had it all to myself!).
So we drank and sang in there for a while...I'm not sure, maybe 2 hours? It was a lot of fun. They had a lot of the classic karaoke songs. And it's just you and your friends so it's not like you have to be shy in front of an entire bar full of people. I think they should have these things in America. They'd really take off. Don't you think? lol.
So then we left and everyone went their separate ways. Damien helped me hail a cab for the 30 minute ride home. I had to show him my address written down, since I don't have any idea how to explain where it is or how to get there. Luckily all cabs have GPS so he was able to type it in. The cab driver was very nice and excited to have a chance to practice his english, which was very broken but he managed to convey his meaning, and we had a nice little conversation. The ride was wonderfully cheap...only 8,200 won. Which is about 8.20 dollars. In America that would have cost at least 20 I would imagine. And, there is no tipping in Korea! So, they've got that going for them.
So, that was my weekend. I had planned to walk around today and get some pictures for you all, but this whole week has been a condensed version of the rainy season, and today it was just pouring all day. So I just went to the grocery store and did my laundry and watched Korean tv. A nice, relaxing day. I wanted to try to get myself back on a normal sleep schedule, since the jet lag was pretty persistent most of the week. I think i'll be in good shape from now on...well, unless more soju comes along.
So yeah, my first weekend in Korea was a lot of fun. Hopefully now I can get my phone and hot water fixed, and I'll be all set. This week I need to go to the hospital to have my blood/urine test for immigration, so I can stay here legally. I think that's all it entails. So, i'll try to write more soon! Maybe more about my reflections of the country so far. This is enough for now. But in short, everyone here is very welcoming and friendly!
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